Private Salsa Class
by agresteboo
Summary: MariChat oneshot Chat decides to teach Marinette how to dance, which evokes some mixed feelings in her. Are they really just friends?


Chat was usually quite stoic, but tonight he stormed into Marinette's room through the open window, excitement livening up his emerald eyes.  
"You could at least knock", Marinette laughed form her bed. She was used to Chat's visits, they met whenever he could find some spare time and today seemed to be one of those days. Marinette put away the designs she was working on and sat up, to show her friend that he has her attention.  
"No time for that Purrincess", he winked in her direction, and she retaliated with an eye-roll, "you're in luck today, for I will be teaching you.", Chat came closer and took her hand.  
"Teaching me what?", she gave him a puzzled look, but didn't withdraw her hand.  
"Salsa.", he purred, pulling her up from the bed.  
"Salsa? And since when do you know how to dance?", Marinette raised her eyebrow at him.  
"Don't question it, do you want to learn or not?", he pulled her dangerously close to himself, smiling mischievously. Marinette wasn't bothered by how close they were, she looked up at him, thinking about the proposition. She knew that Adrien Agreste, her biggest crush and the love of her life, took salsa classes as one of his extracurriculars. In the end, it wouldn't hurt her to learn something new, and maybe it would let her impress Adrien one day. On the other hand, she was worried her clumsiness will disappoint Chat, he seemed so excited and she didn't want to ruin her friends' perception of her.

"Yeah, sure, might as well…", she replied finally. Hearing that, Chat excitedly pulled her outside onto the rooftop. He moved the chairs a bit closer to the wall to give them some space and asked Marinette for her phone, which she handed to him after deleting a few folders and changing her wallpaper. Finally, he cued up a song and they were ready to go.  
"Let me just show you the basic steps first and then you can just copy me to find the rhythm", Chat lined her up in front of him, he looked very serious which amused Marinette. He rarely looked so determined, apart from when he was fighting an akuma. Did he think teaching her will be as hard as defeating Hawkmoth? Chat showed her a few basic steps, going sideways, backward and forward, and the box. She mirrored him slowly, and she was confident that she got the basics within half an hour.  
"Okay, now give me your hands", Chat said and Marinette obediently placed her hands on top of his. She was only holding his index and middle fingers, she never realised how big his hands were compared to hers until now.  
"Let's try it with music", he played the track he previously cued up on Marinette's phone. Immediately, Marinette was distracted. Chat seemed to be fully concentrating on leading her, but she was too focused on the song, of which she didn't understand a single word.  
"Romeo? As in Romeo and Juliet?", Marinette laughed, making herself lose the rhythm completely and almost stepping on Chat.  
"No, as in the singer in this song", Chat smirked, seeing she was embarrassed by her mistake. He stopped for a second and then continued, making it easier for her to pick up the rhythm. Soon enough Marinette got distracted again.  
"Did he just say R. Kelly?", she looked up at Chat,losing her rhythm again, causing her to walk into him, as they both stepped forward, "I'm sorry", she laughed it off and quickly moved away.  
"Marinette, can you take this seriously? I want to dance with you", Chat sighed, he seemed truly resigned, which wasn't like him at all. Normally, he would laugh along with her, she wasn't sure what the new found seriousness in him was about.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know this means so much to you", she mumbled embarrassed. He said something so forward without even blushing, it was astonishing to her, he seemed to be so comfortable with his feelings, which suddenly made her question how she felt about him. They were just friends, and yet he wanted to dance with her and spend all his free time at her house. She loved his company too, and felt disappointed if he didn't visit her at least once a week. But she wouldn't say she was in love with him the way she was with Adrien, yet at the same time it seemed like they weren't _just _friends anymore.  
"It's okay…I don't know why I took this so seriously, dancing should be fun after all", Chat seemed to realise that he ruined the atmosphere by snapping at her.  
"How about we try again? I want to do the turns and other things you talked about.", Marinette took his hands into hers to cut through the awkwardness between them. He smiled gently and they continued where they left off, this time in complete silence, as the song finished. Marinette was focusing on her steps, she kept her head down, looking at her feet, making sure she's doing the right things. Chat indicated a turn, and she followed through perfectly, joining her feet at the end. She was so proud of herself, she looked up at him to comment on it, but immediately paused realising how close they were. Just an hour ago such proximity didn't bother her, and now it felt like something changed, although she wasn't sure what it was. They continued to dance without breaking the eye contact, and Marinette was quite impressed with the fact that she hadn't stepped on Chats' feet yet. Although they were dancing in the most basic way, this moment felt so sensual to Marinette, their bodies were so close, always moving in synch, she tried to read Chats' mind as she looked into his eyes, but she had no idea what he was thinking. His gaze was soft, as if he was daydreaming, and yet at the same time he was focused on their dance. Marinette's eyes wandered a little lower and paused on his lips, she felt like she has never paid so much attention to his features before. They looked like they would be quite soft and delicate if she would kiss them.

Marinette was shocked at that thought, and quickly looked back up, locking eyes with Chat. She wondered if he saw her look and what he thought, but his expression remained the same. This confusing desire to kiss her friend made her lose her focus once again and she forgot she was supposed to turn. She did it quickly, trying to compensate for it and lost her balance. Chat caught her effortlessly.  
"Are you okay?", he asked visibly concerned. Marinette didn't hurt herself, but she found herself unable to reply, as her face was just millimeters from Chats'. She involuntarily looked down at his lips again, and quickly back at him, but this time she was sure he noticed it. He seemed to relax a little, but still held her close. She could see his gaze shifting across her face from her eyes to her lips. Was he thinking the same thing as her? Marinette could feel herself blush, and she knew that gave her away. Chat looked her in the eyes again, and she couldn't tell what was going through his mind, but she was sure he knew what was going through hers. She closed her eyes, unable to bare the tension between them, hoping for Chat to make a move. But nothing happened, she opened her eyes a few seconds later, to find Chat looking at her the same way he did before.  
"I'm fine.", she said, realising that maybe he's waiting on a response. Their lips brushed past each other as she spoke, it made her heart race.  
"I know.", he replied, not moving away. Marinette shifted in his arms, placing her hands on his chest. She could feel his heart-beat, it was surprisingly calm.  
"Chat?"  
"Yeah?"  
"What are we doing?"  
"I don't know"

Marinette closed her eyes again, she couldn't handle the way he looked at her. She wanted him to kiss her already, but at the same time didn't know where that sudden desire came from. She didn't want to make it seem like she was eager to kiss him, she wanted him to make the first move. A loud thunder in the distance made her tremble, and at the same time they heard muffled music coming from downstairs, it was slow and romantic.  
"Why are you on your tiptoes? Are you waiting for a kiss?", Chat whispered, but she could hear him clearly. She didn't realise she was doing it. Marinette opened her eyes, and saw that he was amused by the situation. The thunder interrupted the music again.  
"No…?", she replied, but her tone gave away her dishonesty. Her eyes wandered across his face, she never perceived him as particularly handsome or manly, but today she discovered so many new things about her friend she never noticed in him before. He was so much taller than her, even on her tiptoes she wasn't reaching his lips, Chat was bending down a little to meet her halfway.  
"No?", he teased her, smiling. They were gently rocking in the rhythm of the music coming from downstairs.  
"I think it will rain soon", she said, trying to avoid the subject. Their lips were still brushing past each other as they spoke, and it made Marinette wish they would simply talk like this.  
"I think so too", he moved even closer, they were practically kissing, although both of them kept still, neither wanting to make the first move.  
"I like this song", Chat said after a while, it seemed like he didn't intend to move any further. Marinette ignored what he said and moved closer, pushing their lips together. As she imagined, Chat's lips were very soft. He immediately kissed back, sucking gently on her bottom lip. Marinette felt heat moving across her body, she never felt such excitement before. She knew it was wrong, but she didn't want to stop. She moved her hands across Chat's chest, and trailed her way to the back of his neck, as she reached further her fingers drowned between his thick blonde hair. Marinette pulled him closer, kissing him more aggressively now and he purred with pleasure. They didn't notice that there was no music playing anymore and that the first droplets of rain started to land on their bodies. The gentle light coming from the lantern on the street and the moonlight were the only things illuminating them now. It felt like they were alone in the world.

"Marinette? Are you there?", suddenly her mother's voice broke the silence. Marinette moved away from Chat, embarrassed, but didn't break their embrace.  
"Yeah!", Marinette shouted back, and immediately saw Sabine's head peeking through the roof's entrance.  
"Oh, and Chat is here too", Sabine smiled at them, although she could barely see them in the darkness. Chat waved at her awkwardly.  
"He was teaching me how to dance salsa", Marinette explained, believing that it was enough to justify their position.  
"Well, you better get inside now, it's raining.", Sabine said and disappeared back inside.  
Marinette felt like she couldn't look Chat in the eyes anymore. She was conflicted, on one hand Adrien was the only boy she wanted, but on the other, she found herself weirdly attracted to Chat. They definitely weren't just friends anymore.  
"I better get going," she heard Chat say, but when she looked up he was already in the distance, jumping across buildings to get home.  
Marinette couldn't sleep that night, battling with her own thoughts. Her feelings for Adrien didn't change, but she realised that over time she developed feelings for Chat too.  
"Marinette, it's not a bad thing that you like Chat, you spent so much time together, it's only natural", Tikki said, glad she could finally emerge from hiding and spend time with her owner.  
"I know, but I rejected him so many times before… Why the sudden change?", she turned around to face her kwamii, but she got no answer. On top of that, she was wondering what Chat was feeling. He left so quickly, they didn't even have the chance to talk about the kiss. Did he regret it?

The next day at school Marinette was exhausted. She felt like through the whole night she slept maybe thirty minutes, the anxiety kept her up all night. While pondering on her situation she decided to give up Adrien, pursuing him was simply unrealistic and she had to come to terms with it, whereas Chat was always so close and clearly reciprocates her feelings to some extent. The thing that worried her more was that Chat appeared to regret their kiss in the end. Most of the day was uneventful, however something interesting was about to happen in physical education class.  
"Alright, I had a lot of complains that you guys don't want to play football anymore or whatever, and it's raining today anyways so we can't go out… So Adrien offered to teach the class how to dance or something", the teacher announced, he wasn't too invested into his job and was glad to have an hour to spend on his phone.  
Adrien appeared to be pretty confident about this, he stepped out to the front and announced that he will teach them some basic steps of bachata. A few people decided to sit this one out, but most of the class remained and waited for further instructions. Alya appeared to be very excited, whereas Marinette was shocked and couldn't share her friends excitement. Nino instantly paired up with Alya, and that left Marinette searching for a partner, but before she could turn around and find someone Adrien appeared before her.  
"Will you help me demonstrate?", he took her hands before she could say a word.  
"But… I don't… I don't know… I never danced bachata before…", she started giving him excuses, stuttering. She turned around to look at Alya, who was giving her thumbs up, smiling from ear to ear.  
"Nonsense, Purrincess, you danced very well yesterday", Adrien whispered into her ear, and made her almost physically jump up. She stared at him dumbfounded.  
"Chat?", she mouthed, afraid to say it out loud. He just smiled and nodded.


End file.
